SINGAPORE, Dec 16 — Seeing bruises constantly appearing on her three-year-old daughter’s body, a mother made a police report against her daughter’s preschool, thinking that someone there was abusing the girl.

As it turned out, it was her domestic worker at home who had been pinching and slapping the girl.

On Thursday (December 15), the 39-year-old worker from India pleaded guilty to two counts of ill-treating the young girl, now aged four. Four similar charges will be taken into consideration during sentencing.

The offender cannot be named due to a court order to protect the girl's identity.

The court heard that the worker had been employed at the 29-year-old mother’s home since July 2020 and was tasked with taking care of the girl and her younger brother.

The girl was slightly under two years old at the time.

In mid-2021, the mother started to notice bruises on the girl’s cheeks and questioned the worker, who feigned ignorance and said that the girl could have been injured during her playtime.

In January this year, the mother saw a bruise on the girl’s back and began suspecting that her daughter was being abused.

Again, the domestic worker denied any knowledge of the bruise, leading the mother to suspect that her daughter was being abused at the preschool.

She filed a complaint with the preschool’s principal and made a police report on January 12.

The preschool’s management checked its surveillance footage but did not spot anything amiss.

After the police report was made, the mother noticed that the domestic worker appeared nervous.

The mother grew suspicious and checked the recordings of surveillance cameras placed in her home.

By this time, footage taken before January 6 had already been overwritten by the surveillance system.

However, Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Alexandria Shamini Joseph said that through the recordings available, it was revealed that the domestic worker had ill-treated the young girl through various means on several occasions.

Footages showed the worker pinching the girl several times on her chest, arm, stomach, thigh and cheeks. She also slapped the girl on her mouth, forehead and arm, which often caused the girl to cry.

On at least one occasion, she grabbed the girl’s hair and pulled the child towards her. On another, she used her fist to hammer down on the girl's abdomen.

In a statement to the police on January 13, the worker admitted to her deeds but claimed not to remember when she committed them.

She also claimed to have committed the acts because she was agitated, annoyed and tired of working, but did not raise any complaints about working for (her employer’s) family.

The girl was taken to KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital on January 15 and a medical report indicated that there were bruises on both cheeks and on her upper back, as well as multiple old bruises over her body and limbs, though the causes of those bruises are uncertain.

Following her discovery of the offences, the mother quit her job to care for her children, DPP Alexandria said.

"This also meant that the complainant’s husband was left as the sole breadwinner of the family, which caused stress to the family.”

The domestic worker is set to return to court in January for sentencing.

For each charge of ill-treating a child, she faces up to eight years' jail or a fine of up to S$8,000 (RM26,039), or both. ― TODAY